The famous actor
hugs the little girl in the wheelchair, looks out at the audience with dewy
eyes, and says, "Give so more may live."

#

The car rapidly
approaches a brick wall and slams into it head-on. At that instant, an air bag
bursts from the center of the steering wheel, stopping the driver from ramming
into the windshield. The bag deflates and the uninjured driver steps out of the
wrecked car.

#

A man enters a
crowded bar and orders a drink while talking on his cellular phone. He offers
the three lovely women next to him a drink. At that moment his phone rings:
it's a call from three men farther down the bar who ask to talk to the three
women. They offer the women a certain brand of beer, and the women immediately
accept, leaving the first man alone with his phone.

#

Since this is an
advertising book, I'm sure you all recognize the above as examples of ads. What
may not be clear is what is happening beneath the surface of those ads to make
them particularly effective.

What each of the ads
does is not aim at a consumer's intellect in order to sell the product. Instead
the aim is at the consumer's psyche, the consumer's subconscious mind and
emotions.

How they do that is
the purpose of this book.

#

Before examining how
advertising appeals to your psyche, it's a good idea to review some basic
principles of advertising. These include its purpose: to identify products and
differentiate them from other products. After all, if you haven't identified a
product and shown how it is different from other products, why should anyone
bother choosing your product over someone else's? That's a good way to lose
money.

However, let's start
at the top. Advertising is a major tool in the marketing of products, services
and ideas. The idea is to sell them to consumers. Companies certainly think
it's a good method of selling, and have increased their advertising year after
year. In 1985, the March 28 issue of Advertising Age magazine listed how much
the top ten advertising agencies billed companies worldwide for advertising in
1983 and 1984. In 1983, $19,837,800,000; in 1984, $23,429,700,000. The March
25, 1991 issue of Advertising Age listed a total of almost $52 billion for
1990. That's a 260% increase in seven years. Clearly, companies believe in
advertising.

It's not a new idea.
Advertising has been around for thousands of years. One way of looking at the
cave paintings of Lascaux, which are about
16,000 years old, is as advertising. They could be selling to the spirits of
animals the idea of showing up for the hunt. Or not.

Nonetheless,
advertising recognizable as advertising has been around for millennia. Daniel
Mannix, in his book on the Roman games, Those About to Die, quotes an ad found
on a tombstone:

"Weather
permitting, 30 pairs of gladiators, furnished by A. Clodius Flaccus, together
with substitutes in case any get killed too quickly, will fight May 1st, 2nd
and 3rd at the Circus Maximus. The fights will be followed by a big wild beast
hunt. The famous gladiator Paris will fight. Hurrah for Paris! Hurrah for the generous Flaccus, who
is running for Duumvirate!" (Below this is an ad for the copywriter:
"Marcus wrote this sign by the light of the moon. If you hire Marcus,
he'll work day and night to do a good job.") (Mannix, p. 28)

For the first few
thousand years, people used advertising to promote two things: locations and
services. The above is an example of the first. So were the signs outside
taverns and inns.

Handbills and
posters were also a popular form of advertising. They were passed out promoting
such events as plays, or recruiting for the military. For example, in 1798 the
captain of the U.S.
frigate USS Constitution advertised for a crew:

"
To all able-bodied and patriotic Seamen, who are willing to serve their
Country, and Support its Cause:

"The President
of the United States, having
ordered the Captain and Commander of the good Frigate CONSTITUTION, of 44 guns,
now riding in the harbor
of Boston, to employ the
most vigorous exertions to put said ship, as speedily as possible, in a
situation to sail at the shortest command.

"Notice is
hereby given, That a HOUSE OF RENDEZVOUS is opened at the sign of the Federal
Eagle, kept by Mrs. BROADERS, in Fore-street;--where ONE HUNDRED and FIFTY able
Seamen, and NINETY-FIVE ordinary Seamen, will have an opportunity of entering
into the service of their country for One Year, unless sooner discharged by the
President of the United States.--To all able bodied Seamen, the sum of
SEVENTEEN DOLLARS; and to all ORDINARY SEAMEN the sum of TEN DOLLARS per month,
will be given; and two month s advance will be paid by the Recruiting Officer,
if necessary.

"None will be
allowed to enter this honorable service, but such as are well organized,
healthy and robust; and free from scorbutic and consumptive affections.

"A glorious
opportunity now presents to the brave and hardy Seamen of New England, to enter
the service of their country--to avenge its wrongs--and to protect its rights
on the ocean.

Those brave Lads,
are now invited to repair to the FLAGG of the CONSTITUTION now flying at the above
rendezvous; where they shall be kindly received, handsomely entertained, and
may enter into immediate pay." (Gruppe, p. 27)

Other kinds of
signs, hanging outside shops, promoted services. For example, bootmakers would
hang a boot shaped sign outside their shops to let consumers know where to go
to get their footwear. However, this was not product advertising so much as
service advertising. Yes, the product was boots. But the sign was to tell
people where they could get boots made. The bootmaker didn't have a large stock
of merchandise that the consumer could buy on the spot. Instead, he had samples
of his work. The customer would choose what rhe wanted, the cobbler would take
measurements, make the footwear, and the customer would come back later to get
it.

In both cases, what
was being advertised wasn't products. The purpose of the advertising was to
gather people, as audience, as recruits, as customers.

It wasn't until the
Industrial Revolution at the beginning of the 19th Century that true product
advertising began. This was because, for the first time, products were being
mass produced rather than to order. This led to three eras in marketing.

The first era was
production-oriented. When mass production began, it was still limited. Demand
exceeded supply. There was no need to promote products when they sold as soon
as they were made.

However, as time
went on, production expanded and created a surplus of goods. Supply exceeded
demand. This led to the sales-oriented era. Companies would promote their products
to convince consumers to buy their products rather than their competitors'.
Nonetheless, manufacturers still produced what they wanted to, counting on
their ability to peddle their products.

Eventually, though, the
supply so far exceeded the demand that consumers had more choices than any
promotion could overcome. In addition, they developed a resistance to
"hard-sell" advertising. Producers began to realize that it made more
sense to find out what the consumers wanted before making them, rather than
trying to talk them into buying afterward. We are, to a large extent, in this
marketing-oriented era today.

An example of this
progression is the American auto industry. When Henry Ford invented the
production-line method of manufacturing cars, there was no need to promote them
-- cars were sold before they were built. This was production-oriented
marketing of cars.

As time went on,
more manufacturers started building cars, and the supply of cars went up.
Advertising likewise went up, as producers tried to convince consumers that
their car was better than a competitor's car. Nonetheless, the manufacturers
made their cars as they wished. They counted on the advertising to convince
people that whatever feature they put in the car was what people want, whether
it was two-tone paint jobs, three tons of chrome, or fins like the tail on a
747.

However, when
non-American manufacturers entered the American market, they first tried to
find out what Americans wanted in their cars. The first and greatest example is
the Volkswagen bug. American cars were big, long, wide, flashy, gas-guzzling,
and changed in appearance every year. The bug was small, ugly, and
gas-efficient. It was also easy to park, cheap to run, ran forever, and never
changed appearance just to go out of style. What changed was what consumers
said they wanted (like a gas gauge!). As other non-American manufacturers
entered the market, they also found out what consumers wanted, then built their
cars that way. This was marketing orientation.

Of course, marketing
orientation doesn't mean "no advertising." Advertising is just as
important in marketing orientation as in sales. It's the approach that changes.

Early consumer
advertising during the sales-oriented era was basically caveat emptor
("Let the buyer beware"). Producers said just about anything they
wanted in their ads. For example, a product of the 1880s was the "Health
Jolting Chair," a chair festooned with springs and levers. The copy extolled
its virtues to the skies:

"The
most important Health Mechanism ever produced . . .

"It affords a
PERFECT means of giving EFFICIENT exercise to the ESSENTIALLY IMPORTANT
NUTRITIVE ORGANS OF THE BODY in the most DIRECT, CONVENIENT, COMFORTABLE, and
INEXPENSIVE manner.

"Suitable for
all ages and for most physical conditions.

"INDISPENSABLE
TO THE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS OF MILLIONS OF HUMAN BEINGS WHO MAY BE LIVING
SEDENTARY LIVES through choice or necessity.

Quite a chair,
wasn't it? Actually, it wasn't, and such extravagant claims, especially for
patent medicines and health devices led to consumer anger. It also led to legislation
that required advertisers to substantiate their claims. In 1938, the Federal
Trade Commission was given the power to protect consumers and competitors from
deceptive and unfair advertising. Since then, advertising has gone through
several schools of thought. In the 1940s and 50s ads stressed the upward
mobility provided by products. It was also the era of Rosser Reeves' irritation
school of advertising, a hard-sell approach. Ads, particularly television
commercials, relied on brain-numbing repetition and treated the consumer as an
idiot. The basis of Reeves' approach was the Unique Selling Proposition -- the
USP. The USP was one unique feature of the product that was emphasized in the
ad. Reeves believed that the consumer couldn't handle more than one point at a
time, and limited each ad to one point, repeated over and over.

However, the 1960s
shifted into a new approach -- positioning. Instead of promoting a USP,
advertising showed how a product compared with other products, where the
product fit into the market. The most famous example of this was Doyle, Dane,
Bernbach's Volkswagen campaign. In ads that used headlines such as "Think
Small" and "Lemon", Volkswagen was positioned in the auto market
as an intelligent alternative for intelligent people.

This was the
beginning of the soft-sell approach. Soft-sell depends less on product
description or function, and more on how the product will make the consumer
feel emotionally. It is in this approach that the psychological appeals become
important, since they aim at a person's emotions rather than rher intellect.

#

How advertising goes
about carrying out the above is many and varied. What follows is a discussion
of many of the types and styles of ads that are used.

Before doing that,
however, some general comments about ads that are germane to the purpose of
this book. First, advertising is limited in both time and space. Broadcast
commercials are generally 10 to 60 seconds in length. Print ads are generally
no larger than two pages, and often much smaller. Advertising therefore must do
its job quickly: it must get the consumer's attention, identify itself as being
aimed at that consumer, identify the product, and deliver the selling message,
all within that small time or space. To accomplish this, advertising often
breaks the rules of grammar, syntax, image, and even society. For example, it
relies on stereotypes to help the consumer identify the target market and the
product (I discuss this point in more depth in Consumer Psychology).

#

Second,
advertisements generally contain two elements: copy and illustrations. Copy is
the words, either printed or spoken, that deliver a sales message.
Illustrations are the pictures, either drawn or painted, or photographs.

A point to bear in
mind about copy and illustrations is the difference between intellectual and
emotional processing of information in the human mind. Copy relies on
intellectual processing. It has to, since converting the squiggles on a page
(which is, after all, what printing is) or the random noises issuing from
someone's mouth (which is, after all, what speaking is) must be translated into
meaning in the reader's or listener's mind. Just think about reading or hearing
a language you don't know: for you, it's just so much waste of ink or noise as
far as content is concerned. Such a translation is an intellectual process.
Words, particularly if spoken, can carry great emotion--they can create images
before the mind's eye or call up events that can make you laugh or cry. Spoken
words have the advantage over printed words of extra nuances, such as
inflection, rate, volume, and timbre that help the listener translate the
noises into meaning. Nonetheless, words are always one step away, the step of
translation, from "reality."

Although at first
glance it may not seem so, drawings and paintings also rely on intellectual
processing. Drawings and paintings, like words, are not the things themselves,
but an artist's conception of them. The lines, shapes and colors must be
translated into meaning in the mind of the viewer. Again, illustrations can
carry great emotional impact, particularly paintings with their greater
verisimilitude, but also again they are one step away from "reality."

Photographs, either
still or moving, rely on emotional processing. To the mind, they are the thing
itself, and therefore need no translating to determine what they mean. Of
course, any photograph is, like a drawing or painting, the product of an
artist's conception. Rhe selects, frames, composes, determines exposure, angle,
distances, depth, etc., to present whatever emotional message rhe desires.
Nonetheless, a photograph has an immediate impact on the viewer, with no
intervening step between perception and reaction.

Most ads contain a
combination of copy and illustration, in proportions ranging from all one to
all the other, depending on the how the advertiser wants to present rher sales
message.

There are two basic
ways of presenting a sales message: intellectually and emotionally. An
intellectual presentation depends on logical, rational argument to convince a
consumer to buy the product or service. For example, for many computer
purchasers, buying doesn't depend on what the case looks like or what effect
the machine might have on their social life. What they're looking for is
technical information: how fast does it process information, how much RAM, how
big and fast is the hard disk drive, how many and what type of floppy drives,
how big is the power supply, what is the resolution of the monitor? Other
products that are sold more for their functions than other possible aspects in
the consumer's "bundle of values" include some business and financial
services, computer programs and accessories, construction materials and tools,
and other complex but less than "romantic" products.

Such ads are
"copy heavy," since the sheer amount of information to explain the
functions and benefits of the product or service requires many words. In
addition, such ads usually appear in print media since it takes time and
concentration on the consumer's part to absorb and understand the information.
Such time and concentration characteristics are lacking in broadcast media.

Illustrations are
often sparse in intellectually aimed ads, and those will usually be drawings or
paintings, thus keeping both elements aimed the same way. If photographs are
used, they will usually be stark and simple, with little emotional content,
merely showing what the product looks like.

There are several
ads of this type. In print, there are straight announcement (in which there is
simply a statement about the product or service), testimonial (in which someone
tells about their own experience with the product), one picture (usually a
drawing or painting) and two or more columns of print; and copy heavy
(virtually all words, and a lot of them). In broadcast there is also straight
announcement and testimonial, but also demonstration (in which the product is
shown actually doing what it is purported to do).

The second basic way
to present a sales message is emotionally. In an emotional presentation, the
actual function of the product is often not its main selling point. Instead,
there is a concentration on other aspects of the consumer's bundle of values:
social, psychological, economic. For example, the presentation shows how the
product or service enhances the audience's social life by improving their sex
appeal or self-esteem, or how it will increase their earning power. (Bear in
mind that reading about it (a cognitive exercise) may make it seem that these
are intellectual appeals, but when presented using words with a high
connotation content they are emotional.)

There are several
types of ads that use the emotional presentation. For print these include the
picture window (one large photograph, 60 to 70% of the ad, and one or two short
columns of copy); color field (one photograph that fills the entire ad, with
minimal, or even no copy, woven into the image); and lifestyle (one or more
photographs showing people interacting with the product and enjoying "the
good life" because of it).

For television,
these include lifestyle (as above, but showing the people on film interacting
with the product and enjoying the good life) and slice-of-life (a short playlet
in which actors portray real people whose problem, be it social, psychological
and/or economic, is solved by the product). These two types of commercials are
particularly good for appealing to emotion, since they show 1) a lifestyle that
the target audience of the product may wish, deep down inside, to live; or 2)
they recognize themselves in the slice-of-life depicted, relate to the problem
and wish to solve it as easily and quickly as depicted.

This book is
concerned with just one of the above ways of processing and presenting sales
messages: how advertising can be persuasive by appealing to people's emotions,
their desires, the non-intellectual part of their bundle of values, and where
those desires come from.

DisclaimersThe information provided on this and other pages by me,
Richard F. Taflinger (richt@turbonet.com),
is under my own personal responsibility and not that of WashingtonStateUniversity or the EdwardR.
Murrow College of Communication. Similarly, any opinions expressed are my own
and are in no way to be taken as those of WSU or ERMSC.

In addition,
I, Richard F. Taflinger, accept no responsibility for WSU or ERMCC material or
policies. Statements issued on behalf of WashingtonStateUniversity are in no way
to be taken as reflecting my own opinions or those of any other individual. Nor
do I take responsibility for the contents of any Web Pages listed here other
than my own.